For "direction of irony," I mean the direction the reality is from the statement. To take a simple example, in a sarcastic overstatement, the direction is towards the deflationary truth (which I think of as downward). What I like about the image is that its movement implies what lies underneath all irony, the impression created that the real truth is further still on the other side -- we follow through past the target. So, yes, its aim. I think.

You may be pointing at the same fuzziness I labeled as haloing satire.

---L.